The discovery of high-temperature superconducting materials in 1986 sparked a dream of an amazing new electrical world--a world of loss-free power transmission from coast to coast, of enormously powerful computers, and of levitated trains passing in a blur of speed.

Supported by the DOE Office of Electric Transmission and Distribution, the Superconducting Materials Team in the Materials Science and Technology Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is part of a broad ORNL effort in helping to bring this dream to reality.

The major focuses of our current research are on the fabrication and property enhancement of Second Generation HTS coated conductors.  By growing REBCO films on flexible textured substrates, these coated conductors have been demonstrated to carry large amount on currents in the presence of a magnetic field. In the area of coated conductor fabrication, we are presently working with our industrial partners on the improvement and simplification of ORNL RABiTS-based flexible textured substrates. Efforts on property enhancement are directed toward increasing the flux pinning of HTS as well as conductor design for ac loss reduction.